| Consumption Model | A consumption model is used to define how much food a population group consumes. The units of consumption depend on if the consumption scenario is acute or chronic. |
| Dose Response Model | To measure the health effect of ingesting hazards, the user must specify one or more dose response models for the hazard. In FDA-iRISK, a dose response model is a function which computes the probability of response to a specific ingested dose of the hazard. FDA-iRISK offers many options for dose response models. |
| Food | FDA-iRISK evaluates the risk associated with hazards in food. A food may be considered any food or liquid ingested. E.g. eggs, milk. When adding a food, the user selects if the food will be measured in units of mass or volume. |
| Hazard | FDA-iRISK evaluates the risk associated with hazards in food. A hazard is a microbe or chemical potentially contaminating servings of food which may result in health effects if ingested. E.g. Listeria monocytogenes or Arsenic. |
| Health Metric | To quantify the health impact given an adverse effect, the user must specify a health metric for the hazard. In FDA-iRISK, health metrics can be expressed as Disability Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) or as Cost per Illness. |
| Prevalence | Prevalence represents the proportion of food units that are contaminated and is parameterized as a unitless value between 0 and 1.The prevalence value specified in each process model must be the proportion of contaminated food units for the unit size specified. For example, if the unit size is for a head of lettuce, the prevalence must be the proportion of heads of lettuce that are contaminated and not the proportion of fields or shipping crates that are contaminated. |
| Process Model | A process model is used to associate a specific hazard with a specific food. It includes definitions for initial contamination levels for the hazard in the food. |
| Process Stage | A user may add one or more process stages to a process model. Depending on the process type selected, a process stage can change the concentration of the hazard in the units, the proportion of units that are contaminated in a batch, and the unit size itself. Process types include growth, decrease, evaporation, pooling and other process types. |
| Risk Scenario | A risk scenario is used to combine the elements of hazard, food, dose response, health metric, and process models into a single scenario for ranking. Users can also create exposure only risk scenarios which do not require dose response or health metric elements. |